Saturday, July 30, 2022

 

Rebecca, 2005 - R. 'Mrs. Oakley Fisher' 30 July 2022

Rosemary and I could never get excited over Penstemon digitalis ‘Husker Red’. We had no connection to it nor did the flower have a face. Some years ago that plant was declared Perennial of the Year.

My Delaware friend,  Alex Summers, sometime in 1967, was working on a mimeograph machine to print a journal for the American  Penstemon Society. He thought [I know because Summers told me this in person], “I hate the smell of these solvents and I am not even interested in penstemons.” Shortly after, he started the American Hosta Society.

I cannot look at any hosta in my garden and not see Summers’ face or the faces of the many hybridizers of the plants that I have met through the years.  Then there are the names of hostas which connect me to my past. As an example, Hosta ‘Strip Tease’ reminds me of the many years I enjoyed that scene in Vancouver.

The same happens with roses. They have a face, perhaps of the owner of the garden where you might have seen that rose for the first time. This was the case with the single hybrid tea rose, Rosa ‘Mrs. Oakley Fisher’. I saw her at least 17 years ago in the garden of former and now gone president of the Vancouver Rose Society, Janet Wood.

I was leaving her after a pleasant visit when on the gate out I spotted this yellow rose.  I asked and was told, “That’s Mrs. Oakley Fisher.” I then immediately said, “I am going to go home and make a large and strong mug of Earl Grey Tea. I will toast a slice of bread and spread unsalted butter and apricot jam.” This I did!

Yellow as well as orange were problem colours for my Rosemary who liked blues and whites in our garden. She warmed up to Mrs. Oakley Fisher as she was not one of those complex and much too colourful  hybrid teas. Mrs. Oakley Fisher was a delicate five-petal rose.

Not long after I photographed our granddaughter Rebecca with the rose and her Mexican sailor dress.

The rose did well in our Kerrisdale garden. But she did not seem to like Kitsilano and she finally died. Both Rosemary and I became sad. Sometime in November 2020, weeks before Rosemary died she told me that I would need at least three large Vietnamese terracotta pots (they handle our winters well) and a couple of bags of dirt.

Rosemary died on December 9 and sometime at the end of February there was a knock at my door. I was being delivered a package with three roses from Palatine Roses back East. One was Mrs. Oakley Fisher and the others were two other singles, R. ‘Escimo’ and R. ‘Olivier Rollinger’. The two other singles prospered to the day.  Mrs. Oakley Fisher died. I was distraught.

I ordered three of them from an Oregon nursery last year. Two promptly did not make it to this year.

But!

My little healthy Mrs. Oakley Fisher had two open blooms today and the promise of many more.

And yes, Mrs. Oakley Fisher has Rosemary and Rebecca’s face on her.

 

 

Friday, July 29, 2022

 

Hosta 'Halcyon' circa 1990s

Hosta 'Halcyon' 30 July 2022

 Hosta Halcyon - Elegance in Blue

 

Halcyon Days, which have come to mean any time of happiness and contentment, are actually the 14 days around the winter solstice. According to Greek legend, the halcyon, or kingfisher, built its floating nest around the 14th of December, during which time the gods calmed the seas for the nesting and hatching time.

The above reference from the internet is about a word we use when we look back at our own personal world in a distant past. This is particularly true now in this 21^st century. Some who may be younger than my about to be 80 years say, “Those were the days,” perhaps not knowing that it was the title of a 1968 song by Mary Hopkin. The world of 1968 was one of conflict and demonstration. What were Hopkin’s better days? 

Hosta 'Halcyon' 30 July 2022

 

 

Here are her lyrics:

 

Once upon a time there was a tavern

Where we used to raise a glass or two

Remember how we laughed away the hours

And think of all the great things we would do

Those were the days my friend

We thought they'd never end

We'd sing and dance forever and a day

We'd live the life we choose

We'd fight and never lose

For we were young and sure to have our way

La la la la...

Then the busy years went rushing by us

We lost our starry notions on the way

If by chance I'd see you in the tavern

We'd smile at one another and we'd say

Those were the days my friend

We thought they'd never end

We'd sing and dance forever and a day

We'd live the life we choose

We'd fight and never lose

For we were young and sure to have our way.

La la la la...

Just tonight I stood before the tavern

Nothing seemed the way it used to be

In the glass I saw a strange reflection

Was that lonely woman really me

Those were the days my friend

We thought they'd never end

We'd sing and dance forever and a day

We'd live the life we choose

We'd fight and never lose

Those were the days, oh yes those were the days

La la la la...

Through the door there came familiar laughter

I saw your face and heard you call my name

Oh my friend we're older but no wiser

For in our hearts the dreams are still the same

Those were the days my friend

We thought they'd never end

We'd sing and dance forever and a day

We'd live the life we choose

We'd fight and never lose

Those were the days, oh yes those were the days.

 

All the above is so I can write about my favourite hosta, Hosta ‘Halcyon’. I wrote about its startling beginning in this blog. In it I explain about never touching a blue hosta as your finger will remove the blue coating called bloom.

 

But there are other etiquettes associated with hostas and their possessive owners.

Don’t ever say to one of them, “When do you split your hostas? Could I get a piece of it?’

To begin the nomenclature split is not correct when dealing with hostas. They are divided.  Anybody who has seen a Hosta ‘Sieboldiana Elegans’ in a garden knowing it has been there at least 10 years will understand the beauty of a large, mature and undivided hosta.

There are a few smaller hostas like those of the Tiara series that happily grow in pots and when they fill it they can be divided and given to friends.

I wish the American Hosta Society would consider emulating worldwide rose societies that have a denomination of roses called OGRs or Old Garden Roses. Unlike roses, hostas were not discovered really until this century and they became popular in the late 60s. Why not call those early hostas like Hosta 'Halcyon' OGHs?  

Hosta people call hosta enthusiasts hostaholics. I believe I may be one.

 

 

 

 

Thursday, July 28, 2022

Rosa 'Leander' 31 July 2022

Rosa 'Leander' & Coreopsis verticillata 'Zagreb' 31 July 2022

 It is a given, particularly in this century that both grammar and botanical classification is in flux.

Some 30 years ago the members of the American Hosta Society did not object that yuccas and hostas were in the same family. Now they object, with no satisfaction that hostas, yuccas and the agave (from where we get tequila) are part of the Asparagaceae (asparagus!).

Because my Rosemary was such a keen gardener who was very good with her botanical nomenclature I knew that the photenia, a popular plant used as green hedge in Vancouver is related to the rose family. What is the giveaway?  The photenia has reddish leaves in the spring that turn to green as the season progresses. Many roses (not all) have red young leaves when they begin to grow in the spring.

Rosemary in her penchant for details noticed the little things of plants. Some of this talent of hers rubbed off. Today, 31 July 2022, (I have to explain that I am filling holes for the entire month of June and July when I did not blog) I noticed the beginning of what would have been a healthy stem that would have resulted in a lovely Rosa ‘Leander’.

Leander to Rosemary's Hero

This blog like so many in these two years are all about Rosemary. Rosa ‘Leander’ was one of her fave English Roses, particularly because it did well in our shady Kerrisdale garden. When we moved it to Kits it died. A friend found one in a garden about to be demolished it and gave it to us. In the pot wit Leander is this very nice little yellow flowered flower with exceptional foliage.

And so I dedicate this blog to the memory of my Rosemary who taught me so much including noticing the small details.

Wednesday, July 27, 2022

 

Werner Herzog - 140mm lens - my two 140s with Rosemary's Crambe maritima 27 July 2022

Hosta 'Dorset Blue' 27 July 2022

When I embarked as a magazine portrait photographer in Vancouver I was aided by the fact that I had purchased in 1979, what was then deemed a new-fangled camera, called a Mamiya RB-67. It used and uses (I have three of them) 120 film (still being made) which was encased in a back that revolved its 6x7cm format into vertical and horizontal. My photographs delighted art directors as my verticals fit full page bleeds and the horizontals looked just fine as the two page spreads that became the vogue in those days. Because I had many backs I shot both in b+w and colour giving those art directors more choices.

But most important for me was that I researched my subjects and when I photographed them I never asked them to do something they did not want to do. It was important to respect them. My Rosemary gave me breath mints and made sure I applied my Mitchum anti-perspiramt.

I believe I have the same approach to my plant scans (since 2001 and perhaps over 2000 of them). I respect my plants and I do my best to make them look exactly as they are and sometimes a tad better. When I tell folks that my plants talk to me, they laugh. But plants do communicate their need for water or sun or shade.

This brings me to the topic at hand – the macro lens. Few macro lenses are macro. Many are close-focusing lenses. A normal lens is sharp at infinity and the image begins to deteriorate as you get close. A true macro is sharp up close and the image begins to deteriorate as you focus to infinity.

There is one lens (there may be more) that is the exception. This is my Mamiya 140mm lens with floating elements. I believe I may have purchased my first one in 1981. The second one I bought when the first one had a shutter main spring break. I had it fixed but from then on I always had to 140s and two Mamiyas RB in my photo bag, just in case.

 

Hosta 'Dorset Blue' 27 July 2022

 

The macro setting of the 140mm lens enabled me to get close to people’s faces for dramatic portraits. That is all I used my macro lens for.

It is now fashionable in this 21^st century to use close focusing or macro lenses (and even close focusing phones) to photograph flowers, particularly roses.

What follows is my personal opinion on the subject.

I believe that it is important to respect the beauty of a plant by showing it as if it were a portrait not as the detail of a nose, ear or lip.

When I started scanning my roses in 2001 I made sure that the scans were at 100% the size of the plant, that the colour was accurate and I always noted the date.

I call my plant scans, scanographs and I am a scanographer. I could add that I am a plant portrait scanographer.

And I might add (still a personal opinion) that all those macro photos of flowers are kind of dull. 

 

Hosta 'Dorset Blue' 27 July 2022

 

Tuesday, July 26, 2022

 

June 1992 - Vancouver Magazine

The PNE Roller Coaster is back after a year long refurbishment.  It's the perfect time to bring back an @CBCOnTheCoast classic with @Lazin_Ryder

 Enjoy!

cbc.ca

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When I read the above today in Twitter I immediately went to Google and put woodie, Alex Waterhouse-Hayward and got this blog. When I went to my files, I looked for Roller Coaster –PNE and found the negatives that I took sometime in June 1992 for the July issue of Vancouver Magazine. A copy of the magazine was there, too.

 

My photograph is not the usual one where you shoot behind you, and you get the horrified look on people's faces.

Why did I take the picture in the opposite direction? I was told to.

I must give credit that in the 80s and 90s I worked lots for many magazines including Vancouver Magazine. The art directors were good at their job. The one for Vancouver Magazine in 1992 was Rick Staehling (deceased) who had graduated from the prestigious Art Center in Los Angeles.

Art directors like him, and the one that followed, Chris Dahl gave detailed instructions on how photographers or illustrators would deal with their assignments.

I remember telling Staehling that I suffered from acute motion sickness and I could not even go on a swing. He insisted that I had to take a stomach churning shot of the roller coaster.

I did. That was 30 years ago and that world of good journalism is gone. I could be smug about it and look down on photographers now. I try not to, and now I hope that somehow they may find the mentors that I was lucky to have had, and perhaps they may develop skills that go beyond the obvious. And only then will they attain a style, all their own.